Emma and Cherish made crepes for their first time.
They did a great job!
We had Strawberry and Cream crepes for supper one night this week,
they were a huge hit!
Next they’ll have to try some other varieties.
The zinnias were from Olivia’s herb garden.
Here is a good video tutorial:
My sweet, hard working man has been home the last few days sick with a bad cold. Normally he just keeps going even when he is sick, but this one has had him flat on his back!
There is nothing like a chicken soup to sooth a sore throat and open those nasal airways! I made a soup with a LOT of onions and garlic in it… everyone’s nose was running by the time we finished supper. 
Not only did I see improvement in my husband’s cold, but the next day our 6 year old had hurt his foot (I very slight sprain I think), and after keeping his foot up for the day and a couple bowls of soup, he said my Fight-That-Cold-Soup healed his foot. lol… I’ll take credit for that! 
But seriously, the garlic and onions may have helped. Perhaps I should rename this the Miracle -Cure-Soup?
Fight-That-Cold-Soup
Boil some chicken until it is done , I used legs.
Remove the chicken from the water and let it cool.
Add to the water:
Onions…lots of them, I diced 2-3 onions
3-4 garlic cloves
5-6 celery stalks, the leafy part has the flavor
2-3 carrots, diced
1 bullion cube if you need extra flavor
Let it simmer on medium heat until the veggies are tender, but not too mushy, this takes about 20 minutes.
Tear the meat off the chicken bones and add to the soup.
Add salt and pepper, and a dollop of sour cream if you like, although milk products do increase flem, so I’d withhold that from the sick ones.
Why garlic is helpful with colds.
Why onions are helpful with colds.
Video tutorial how to make broth and stock.
And if you live in the south cornbread is a staple for soup, chili and beans.
Tonight we had wild boar, brown rice and green beans.
Olivia came in as I was finishing up cooking and made a Teriyaki sauce.
IT.WAS.SO.GOOD!
(brown sugar, garlic and soy sauce)
You know it was a hit when everyone has their plate clean!
Tonight I made some simple banana pudding for a treat.
It was simple because I had no wafers and only one banana left!
We even had 2 extra people at the last minute and I managed to slice that ‘naner thin enough that everyone got some!
That’s 9 desserts and 1 ‘naner…patting self on the back!
And if not having any wafers wasn’t bad enough I used a non-daily whipped topping…
can you say nasty?!
Real whipped cream is to non-dairy topping
as
butter is to margarine.
Lucky for me that most of the people that sit at my table are not picky,
dessert is dessert is dessert!
And they all scraped their dishes clean.
What memories are you building with family and friends around your table? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Please link up if you have a post about fellowship around your table, or leave a comment sharing your best ideas!
While they are young and eager
MAKE TIME to include little ones in the kitchen.
Let them taste and see that life is full of good things.
MAKE TIME to reassure them they are IMPORTANT…
and NEEDED.
MAKE TIME to let them do their best…
even if it makes a BIG ‘Ol MESS!
In the end you will reap the rewards of time well spent.
If you are too busy to make time,
then for the sake of their souls,
do away with the things that weigh you down…
and embrace what is good and pleasing…
embrace what is eternal.
I love making venison stew in the cast iron dutch oven!
Cook on med-high heat for 3-4 minutes, DO NOT OVER COOK:
When it is just about done add and saute for 1-2 minutes:
Add to the pot:
Add:
Bring the liquid up to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer for 1 hour, or until the meat is very tender.
What memories are you building with family and friends around your table? I’d love to hear your ideas! Please link up if you have a post about fellowship around your table, or leave a comment sharing your best ideas!
I guess you could say that our Christmas this year came in like a lamb and went out like a lion!
Most of our family lives over a thousand miles away so we do not have heavy family demands for get-togethers. We do have some very dear friends that we always go out to dinner with and we always have our church family.
And then we do have Olivia, who has appointed herself as our family’s activity coordinator (I think she thinks me and Jeff are a bit boring). She decided we needed to make a new tradition of the 28 Days of Christmas where we do a special activity each evening before Christmas… we did most of them.
One evening we had homemade pizza and danced the waltz in the living-room.
Since we all stink at dancing this is a work in progress,
but it was fun, yes, even Jeff in his old man slippers and me barefooted.
Olivia and Emma’s pictures are too blurry to post!
Christmas Eve was truly enjoyable. We started the day at the gym relaxing exercising in the pool and hot tub.
Olivia made us a wonderful Asian dish and we watched a couple movies.
Then Jeff read to us and we prayed.
We opened most of our gifts Christmas Eve so we could relax more Christmas morning before church.
She also had a small gift at each place setting.
Our Christmas feast around the table all weekend was wonderful, the gifts were much appreciated,
but it is the relationships with the people that are most cherished. We must take pictures (even if we don’t look our best),
we must journal in what ever form we like, even if it is blogging,
because we need to remember these details that fade with time.
Dough Rising
Christmas Day was wonderful. We worshiped the King of Kings at church with our spiritual family and enjoyed lunch together. The rest of the day we relaxed at home.
Monday the decorations came down! As much as I love the holidays, I NEED order! And I NEED the space in our home!
We also found out Monday that we were to have family from out of state come visit on Tuesday. So Tuesday evening our tiny home was filled with 22 people. Both of my brothers, their families and friends came. Yes… we ate again…and again!
Wednesday night we had a bonfire and ‘smores and said our goodbyes. We were thankful for the visit and memories made.
Tomorrow I will tell you my favorite part of our Christmas, probably my most cherished memory ever!
I think most of us truly desire to have one big happy family, all gathered around the table, holding hands to say the blessing and then to fill our hearts with laughter and our bellies with good food. I think most of us have our own version of the Walton family dinner table in our minds…especially us moms!
But the truth is TV is not real and of all the families I know there is not a single one that has the ideal. They all have issues, if not within their own household with extended family. We all have gatherings we need to go to, “because we are family”, yet we dread it. We dread an obnoxious personality, a hostile worldview, bratty kids, lack of love…name your reason.
For those of us that long for peace and joy around our table holidays can have a way of bringing out a dark or mean side of us. We want everyone on the same page, not clones of us, but rather clones with a spirit of Christ. We desire to break bread together and to enjoy a feast with the focus being on Christ. Wouldn’t it be grand to have all of our children and their families…to have Grandma and Grandpa…to have great aunts and uncles gathered around the table feasting in peace and joy?
Sad thing is we live in a fallen world and as our culture declines from the traditional, Biblical family, peaceful and joyful gatherings around the table becomes less and less the ideal. Many young people don’t even know who the Waltons are and because families are so dysfunctional they take their cues from Hollywood, pop songs and peers as to what a family should look like, which in turn makes it harder and harder to attend family gatherings.
Moms, although your husband is the head of the house you are the one that determines the atmosphere.
With that said, Romans 12:18 says, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.” There are times we need to endure some situations to be a good witness, but often that “witness” can happen at other times than just Thanksgiving and Christmas. And there is a difference in putting up with obnoxious people and people who are planting seeds to destruction in your young children.
Let this be a simpler Christmas, slow down, create memories with family traditions. Reclaim your family’s table.
Everyone in our house loves Mexican food, except for Jeff. Yet, because he is King of His Castle and the primary bread winner, we need to keep the man happy! :) Now don’t get me wrong, he’ll eat whatever we put in front of him, and he wants us to enjoy our favorites too, but we still want him to ENJOY his supper after laboring hard all day for us!
So when we have one of the King’s less favorite meals we try to do something specail to make up for it. ;o)
You can hop on over to Olivia’s blog to see how she saved supper!
I love harvest time! There is such an excitement in the air. It is a time for celebrations and feasting after a long hot summer! A time for football, chili and bonfires!
Sunday night we hosted a bonfire for about 140 of our closest friends. They were mostly our church family and a few neighbors. I am so humbled by the SWEET fellowship we have with so many like-minded, Christ-minded friends!
We had lots of chili…
lots of candle light…
lots of sweet girls…
thank you Prittchet girls for jumping right in to help!
Lots of good fellowship…
lots of precious children…
lots of sweet smiles…
did I mention we had lots of kids?!
Lots of friends…
friends young and old!
Thank you Taylor and Robin for helping with pictures!!!
Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.
And can there be a bonfire without smores?!
Yesterday I was gone teaching a sewing class and the girls were at home, Emma had school work to do and Olivia had a couple projects to finish.
Usually I am at home, I’m the main one doing the home ‘making’, although the girls do their share. Being gone yesterday and my mind was on other things, Olivia had already said she was going to make supper.
I walked in after the class and they both had cleaned the house good, I love when they do that!!! Then I walked into the kitchen and Olivia had already set the table for supper. When I saw the table looking so pretty and ‘ready’ it just gave me such a warm WELCOMING feeling, like someone loved me enough to prepare not only nourishment, but also beauty.
What a reminder for me of the importance of homeMAKING.
We have a small house. I have this BIG bench that I love, but it is not practical, other than it has a built in chest under the seat and I store quilts in it. I’ve had it in the livingroom and in my bedroom, but its really just something pretty, not something you’d curl up and watch a movie on, and in a small house practicality usually overrides beauty.
I decided to move our big kitchen table (which is really too wide for our tiny kitchen) out to our pavilion. I moved the lovely bench and a smaller table where the sides fold down to the kitchen. For the time being I am happy with this arrangement, but I’m hoping my dear, sweet, talented husband will build me us a table that is narrow enough for our kitchen, yet long enough for guest (that’s another hint, Honey!).
Until then we all gather TOGETHER around this table.
And don’t you know, as soon as we made this change to a smaller table, Josh came home off the road and has decided to find work locally, which means we all squeeze in a little closer… I don’t mind.
With the weather getting cooler it’s prefect time for stews, soups and chili. Olivia made a wonderful dish using her cast iron dutch oven. I guess it falls in the chili category only with roasted peppers and bacon, but no beans.
She also made some wonderful grilled cheese sandwiches!
This with a dab of sour cream and a bed of rice…YUM!
Josh came in while we were eating and it was one of those evenings when it seemed all was well with the world, or at least in our little corner, all three of our kids were at the table. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, the sunlight was beaming in on a cool day and the conversation was pleasant and cheerful. I wish every meal was like this, some days there is strife, hurt feelings or simply heavy burdens to carry, but this day, this meal, it just seemed real special… peaceful, and for that I give thanks!
~~~
What memories are you building with family and friends around your table? I’d love to hear your ideas! Please link up if you have a post about fellowship around your table, or leave a comment sharing your best ideas!
